How to be a CEO

Continuing our SME season, looking at successful start-ups, we speak with 2011 The Apprentice winner Tom Pellereau, whose business is thriving, 13 years later.Tom’s beauty innovation business Stylideas has made millions since launching in 2012, in part thanks to Lord Alan Sugar’s support and investment.In this episode we talk about:What Tom would have done if he didn’t make it on the showTom reflects on his record as the first Apprentice finalist to lose eight tasks How Lord Sugar has supported Tom’s businessThe impact of the pandemic on StylideasHow Tom has had to adapt to managing peopleTom explains how he deals with copycat productsWhy Tom is focusing on the UK and EuropeTom’s mission to make skin therapy tools more accessibleCan Tom become bigger than James Dyson?For more interviews, news and analysis from the Evening Standard's business team, go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the newspaper. How to be a CEO is released every second Monday, hit your follow button so you never miss out.

We're continuing our SME season on How to be a CEO with solo round the world sailor Pip Hare. In this episode:Pip's 30 year journey to become a round the globe sailorWhat is “flow state” and how did it help her accomplish her dream?The problems trying to make her way in the sailing world as a young womanThe “knackered old boat” she had to use to sail solo around the worldWhy winning was less important than “outperforming my boat”The importance of keeping perspective on her achievements in times of stressHow to stay calm when your boat breaks down in the middle of the ocean with no-one to helpWhy she’s the ultimate home worker, and the advice she can give to businessesPip’s going to be appearing at the Watercooler, a two day event about workplace wellbeing being held alongside the Evening Standard’s SME Expo on April 23rd and 24th at Excel London. To register and get FREE tickets to the Watercooler go to watercoolerevent.com, and and to learn more about the SME Expo, head to smexpo.co.uk. 

Continuing our season looking at the SME market, we're looking at what happens when you're start-up is a hit? What do you do next?  Joining the show is Making Moves founder and CEO Tobi Crosbie. His office space rental company is about to celebrate its tenth anniversary, having come through the pandemic-induced era of home working. In this episode we talk about: Why Tobi sold his flat to start up a new companyHow he encouraged people to work for a small firm The big deal that changed everythingIs home working on its way out?How do you celebrate ten years in business?What's next for the company? For more interviews, news and analysis from the Evening Standard's business team, go to standard.co.uk/business or pick up the newspaper. How to be a CEO is released every second Monday, hit your follow button so you never miss out. 

On this episode of How to be a CEO we’re continuing our series looking at start-up success stories.Pockit is a London-based fintech, serving customers left behind by mainstream banks. It was launched in 2014, has more than 900 thousand customers, and last summer it raised ten million dollars in funding – but it hasn’t been all plain sailing.Its CEO Virraj Jatania spoke to the Evening Standard’s business editor, Jonathan Prynn about:How Virraj’s childhood growing up in a family business shaped his entrepreneurshipWhy seeing the struggles of people restricted from mainstream banking made him want to launch PockitThe chance meeting with Sir Alex Ferguson that led to him becoming an early investorHow his role as CEO changed as the company scaled upWhat happened when a big funding round collapsed just as the pandemic arrivedHow the Wirecard scandal led to a crisis at PockitThe “two primary objectives” he has for the company’s futureHow to be a CEO drops every second Monday. Hit your follow button to make sure you don’t miss an episode. You can read more from Jonathan Prynn at standard.co.uk/business

Kickstarting a season of shows looking at the SME market, we speak to Theo Paphitis, the former Dragon's Den star whose retail group includes companies like Ryman Stationery, Robert Dyas, Boux Avenue and London Graphic Centre. He's also the man behind the phenomenally popular Small Business Sunday network, which he started from his kitchen table in 2010. In this episode we talk about:Why starting a business makes you “bounce out of bed in the morning” How to deal with the curveballs when they come an SME’s way.Why you should wear your business scars as a “badge of honour”Could he do today what he did when he first started out as a young man?The simple tweet that started the Small Business Sunday phenomenonHow he overcame “incredible shyness” to develop a network when he first started in businessThe “chance network meeting” that led to Ryman Stationery helping him out in his early daysWhy he runs the Theo Paphitis Retail Group as a small, family businessWho’s really making money from online retailing… and why it’s not the retailers?Why retailers need to “have a reason to exist” to get people through the doorRyman's "unique" approach to disrupting the greetings card marketWhy business rates are "the most unfit tax known to man"Theo will be appearing at the Evening Standard's SME Expo, where there’ll be 4,000 SME founders and decision makers hearing from keynote speakers and joining in the workshops and networking events taking place over the two days. It’s free, go to smexpo.co.uk for more details. 

Formerly group CEO of Barclays, Antony Jenkins is the founder and CEO of 10x Banking. It's a tech company created in 2016 with an ambition to “build better banks”. In this conversation we talk about:• The future of banking•The influence of big tech in finance with innovations like Apple Pay•Why he founded 10x Banking with his own money and the difficulty developing new technologies•The ageing banking technology and why it’s difficult to replace•How neobanks are able to take business away from traditional banksFor more interviews, news and features, check out standard.co.uk/business or pick up the Evening Standard newspaper.